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Friday, October 29, 1976
University Daily Kansan
Comment on
The Election: Ford or Carter or forget it
Ford earns back-pat, not 4 years
Contrary to popular belief, this presidential election will make a difference. Beneath the yawns, the clumsy cracks and peanut jokes are a few real issues.
For eight years now, the Republicans have been in the White House. During that eight years, the dollar has gone spiratically upward, and attempts to improve the position of minorities have come to a standstill.
TRUE, OUR relations with China and the Soviet Union have improved, and the war has been less than gloriously ended in Vietnam, but the Republicans will be better prepared to promise it will all be remedied in Ford's next term.
The increased unemployment and lack of social progress (the number of Americans below the poverty line is actually increasing now) might be understandable if they were the result of a Republican tax increase, or the fiscal budget. But the truth is the evil federal deficit has continued to increase under the Republicans.
Perhaps part of this is due to the "free-spending, liberal Democrat Congress," but part is also due to the GOP's love affair with the Pentagon.
A STRONG defense is an undeniable necessity, but cutting a few billion from the defense budget is hardly a ludicrous and frightening idea when B-1 bombers cost about $1 billion each.
President Ford didn't give the unemployed the time of day until he realized they could vote. He has played politics with his foreign and domestic policies with the whim of the latest Gallup Poll. He has succeeded in being as vague as Bob Dole says Carter is while actually being President—nuite an accomplishment
Jimmy Carter isn't a saint. He is a competent and probably too candid man who, although not completely
EVEN IF the presidential aspirants were indicted unlawfully, the identity of their running mates should be disclosed.
known, has been stuck with a lot of easy-to-remember labels such as "vague." Yet his positions are clearer than those of most of the presidential candidates of recent memory. Most of the alleged vagueness comes from the fact that he was a presidential, campaign, and from a constant harping on and misquoting of Carter by GOP hatchet men.
Bob Dole has no business being a heartbeat from the Presidency. He is a decent senator, but once he gets beyond that the same partisan and streetfighter would like to take over and assume would also make him a less-than-desirable president.
Walter Mondale may not be as quick on the draw as Dole, but he is admired by both Republican and Democratic senators for his abilities and intelligence.
FORD HAS a reputation for being a "nice guy." A real good buddy. This is very likely so, and Ford is probably really fun to go bowling with—but does that qualify him to be President in his own right? When he was sworn in, Ford said he saw himself as a caretaker president and wouldn't run for President in 1976. As a caretaker president, he earned a pat on the back for a good try—not another four years.
Americans like to stick with the tried and the known until they have no other choice. Many of them will stick with their choices.
But it's hard to see Ford doing anything different in the next four years. In fact, it's hard to imagine him doing anything at all. Knowing Gerald Ford is a reason to vote against him, not for him.
By Jim Bates Editorial Editor
Ford is the safe, realistic choice
Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter will win the presidential election. A vote for anyone else won't have much impact. And a vote for anyone except Gerald Ford won't make much sense.
Gerald Ford has shown a grasp of America's potential in the limits of what government can do. He is a realist.
HE HAS tried to strengthen the economy, not weaken it with patchwork programs that benefit few except government bureaucrats. Like John Kennedy, he has spurred economic recovery by giving industry incentives to produce more goods and employ more people.
Carter likes to say 2.5 million more people are unemployed than when Ford took office. But it is unfair to blame Ford for the deepening recession during his second term, dime to time to turn things around—but Ford has done it.
From August 1975 to August 1976, 2.7 million more people were put to work. Unemployment was cut by one-half million and 2.2 million people were added to the job force. Even Carter's chief economic adviser says next year will be one of continued economic improvement.
**FORD DID** this while inflation was being cut in half or the average taxpayer wasn't being asked to pay more.
Ford has been a realist abroad, too, despite his slip on Eastern Europe. The Middle East is quieter, and a peaceful solution to African problems is possible because of U.S. help. Ford perhaps has let the Russians have too much, but this trend, inspired by Henry Kissinger, is being reversed.
In contrast to Ford the realist we have Carter the muddled idealist. Jimmy says he will put people back to work, which will produce revenue to balance the budget. But then he says he won't adopt expensive
programs to put people back to work until the budget is balanced, which he previously said couldn't be done without putting those people to work.
CONFUSING? Such clarity is Carter's hallmark. Concerning defense, Jimmy promises a stronger defense and less spending, something even the liberal analysts of the Brookings institution say isn't possible.
Jimmy says we need leadership, but he conducts polls to find out what people want to hear and then says those things. His "promise them anything" attitude isn't my idea of leadership.
Concerning integrity, Carter said no records were kept of the contributors to his 1970 campaign for governor. Then why did a partial list of them turn up in a campaign worker's basement? And why did the list contribute more than $1,000 include 11 persons later appointed to spots in Carter's administration?
WHY DID Carter's fundraisers, between Carter's primary and general election victories for governor, accept $11,500 from road-building contractors who expected to continue doing business with the state?
Why were Carter's books so poorly kept that there is an apparent discrepancy of $200,000 between Carter's 1970 expenditures and campaign contributions?
Those who don't seriously question Carter's efficiency, honesty or integrity should take a look at his record. Gerald Ford's record is not perfect, but he did investigate by Congress and a special prosecutor.
Gerald Ford will give America four solid years as President. Carter offers impossible promises, false leadership and a record that raises serious doubts about his integrity.
By Greg Hack Contributing Writer
Sitting this one out
I am going to sit this presidential election out. I can't put my trust in Jimmy Carter. President Ford has a record of getting with his leadership or intelligence.
Gene McCarthy, who tugs at my heart, really is washed up. I couldn't vote for him and honestly say that he would make a good president. The other candidates, who are too numerous to mention, are either too far to the right or too far to the left for me.
THAT LEAVES me with one choice. I am not going to vote. I have made my mind up already to sit at a rally and call for all protest, but it is the best I can do.
If someone would have told me in 1972, when I was too young to vote for McGovern, that I wouldn't even bother to register to vote in 1976, I would have told them that they were crazy.
I WANTED Richard Nixon out of office so much in 1972 (and '73 and that I would have done almost every day) but only 17 in November 1972, and the
I am upset with myself for taking such a dim view of politics in the Bicentennial year, but I don't know what else to do.
law says you have to be 18 to vote. So I watched Nixon burr McGovern.
I hope that I am missed at the polls this year. I doubt that I will be, because politicians look at winning percentages, not nonvoting ones.
Whoever wins the presidential election will look at the size of the victory, declare it a mandate to elect a president, and declare the people's choice. Hi ho, hi ho.
No, the winner will be pleased that he won and go about doing what presidential election winners do. He will ignore me.
He won't look at my non-vote and the non-votes of others and say that something is missing, that he might have done something wrong, or that he might have failed to reach a few people.
Someone who won't ignore me is the person who will say, "Young, you slacker. What right have you to say anything. You didn't even vote."
That's right, I will say. I have been displaying my lack of enthusiasm for the President for some time. Look at my voting record.
By Carl Young Contributing Writer
Of course that won't satisfy them, but I will have done the best I could.
The student revolutionary banners of the '60s have long since been furled and stored away. Who knows how long it will be before they and the rocks fell? They are still flicking again. It certain that the fiery political zeal that so many students possessed, or thought they possessed, is absent in this country, and probably aware of the numerous reports saying that all college students are interested in now are football, drinking and sex; except for the usually worrying about their job futures in the real world.
Elections fail to motivate public
These often simplistic analyses, which seem to give assurance to those who were frightened or erased by the '60s activism, correspond to the results of several recent polls examined student interest in politics and the presidential election.
ACCORDING TO the polls, it is estimated that for the first time since 1920, when women were first allowed to vote in presidential elections, less than one percent will vote. Of those nonvoters, 48 per cent are 35 or younger. Seventy-two per cent of those younger nonvoters said one reason they weren't voting was that they did not indicate a thing one thing and did another after winning office.
Fifty-eight per cent of the same group picked John, and 42 per cent of the most admired, Carter and Ford were each picked by one (that's right, one) per cent of those who should leave them with few
delusions of receiving popular adulation.
John Fuller Contributing Writer
ERNEST Herningway once said that a good reporter should have a built-in bulbish detector and think about the American people as a
whole like to pride themselves on having that ability, even though they have been diped often in the past. In any event, it seems that millions of Americans have had their detectors turned on high in this trivial and mediocre mental essentialism. Since the detectors give high similar readings for both candidates, apathy is the natural path to take.
Many voters just can't figure out whether believing in our two-party political system and its candidates is a blessing or a curse. Many don't see much difference between sitting on the fence and being cynical, and knowing which of us in politics only to discover what cynicism and disillusionment really mean. Think of all the loyal Republicans that defended Nixon until the very end. (The sarcastic nonparticipant would say, "Whaddaways? Look at all the blind fools that still unknowingly support Nixon staffers that are still in powerful government positions.")
DESPIETE ALL the negative aspects of the current political scene, a lot of citizens still believe that the faithful in their faith in our flawed system.
Even though this is only a fraction of the student population, the students' involvement shows that the spirit of participatoryocracy isn't totally unburdened.
and the College Republicans here are proof that somebody still has time for politics. The Republicans have about 300 members, but, according to officers of the club, only about 10 per cent of them really get out and do the grassroots work so we are swayed to a well-run team. Likewise, only about 40 per cent of the 110 members of the Young Democrats really get involved
The KU Young Democrats
MOST OF them will admit that their parents were either
active in their political parties or held strong political views that were passed on to their children. But the serious differences in their parties and that there are major differences between them.
Those I talked to were home about their involvement. Ego and self-inferite definitely play a part, but they are also motivated get a chance to meet and know politically influential people. Some join to meet other people with the same interests as you, but just to take up spare time.
BUT IDEALISM showed too. One student said he felt fortunate to be an American and then went on a journey spent canvassing door-to-door.
putting up yard signs and answering the phone gave him a sense of paying his debt to work. Another student said she wouldn't be involved if she didn't think that sooner or later something good for society came from her contribution.
"Realistically, the cynics might be correct about police, she said. "They can't stand a world without hope."
Amen. In 50 years, when we look back on the winner of the Ford-Carter contest as just another Millard Fillmore, it is no surprise that he or at least more interesting and inspiring to the average voter.